Swapping Caps Lock and Control Keys

Works in: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7

In our opinion this is the best way to swap the control and caps lock keys in Windows because you don't have to rely on any external program and the registry edit works 100% perfectly (for the paranoid).

Why should one bother changing the caps lock and control keys, what's wrong with the control key where it is? After extensive testing, our conclusion is that - if you use the control key a lot (like in Emacs or Vim), then you should definitely swap the control and caps lock keys as it's extremely ergo-dynamic to have the control key in the home row.

Click Start -> Run
Type: regedit, and click OK
Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> System -> CurrentControlSet -> Control -> KeyBoard Layout
Note: KeyBoard Layout, and not KeyBoard Layouts
Right-click: Keyboard Layout, and select New -> Binary value
Rename: New Value #1 -> Scancode Map
Right click: Scancode Map -> Modify

0000  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0008  03 00 00 00 1d 00 3a 00
0010  3a 00 1d 00 00 00 00 00  
0018

Close regedit and restart your computer

Comments

Rebecca Sawyer	I just tried this and it didn't work. Typed in the code above and then restarted my computer. No change in my capslock or left CTRL key. So I re-opened the registry editor and the Scancode Map appeared exactly as the code above, but no change I have a 2009 Dell Precision Workstation running Windows XP, Service Pack 3. Any ideas? Thanks Rebecca
Sanjib	Hi Rebecca, The fix should have worked for Windows XP. I personally had the caps and ctrl switched on XP, Vista and Windows 7 using the registry edit above. So I am pretty sure it will work. Can you double-check if you edited the values for: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> System -> CurrentControlSet -> Control -> KeyBoard Layout Remember it's for "KeyBoard Layout", and not "KeyBoard Layouts" Personally I like the registry edit because it's very simple and no software needed to be installed. Another solution is to use: XKeymacs http://www.cam.hi-ho.ne.jp/oishi/indexen.html XKeymacs primarily offers Emacs style key bindings in addition to caps and control switch.